


your love is better than

by whitachi



Category: Buzzfeed: Worth It (Web Series)
Genre: First Kiss, Ice Cream, Just Some Real Soft Shit, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-23
Updated: 2019-03-23
Packaged: 2019-11-28 15:35:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18210215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whitachi/pseuds/whitachi
Summary: Steven looked at him out of the corner of his eye. "You know you stare at me a lot, right?"Andrew blinked a few times. Straight-up busted. "Yeah," he said, because why try to deny something there was significant amounts of literal footage of. "I do."Steven smiled a little but didn't quite turn to look at Andrew. "Is there, like, something permanently on my face?""No," Andrew said, and he couldn't explain why, but it suddenly felt stupid to say anything but the truth. "I just really like looking at you when you're happy."--In which Andrew and Steven have ice cream.





	your love is better than

**Author's Note:**

> I truly did not expect the first time I felt compelled to get out of bed at 3:30 in the morning and write a fanfiction because it was writing itself so loudly in my head would be buzzfeed RPF, but here we are.
> 
> Also did not predict the first standrew I would be posting would be completely non-explicit fluff, but here, again, we are.
> 
> Title is from a 1993 Sarah McLachlan song, because I'm old.

They were trying out some new bar Kelsey had heard about, some place that had been described as "so totally chill" and to Andrew's quiet surprise, had actually turned out to be so. It was one of those places with an expansive back patio, large wooden beams built up and across and strung all around with twinkling white Christmas lights that made the faces of the friends and coworkers and strangers around him seem soft and warm. He easily worked his way up to a third beer as he floated in and out of conversations, and found himself settling into a rare state of contentment. He found himself staring at Steven. Oh, what else was new.

Steven was too engrossed in his phone for a night out, he thought, but he couldn't quite pull up the energy to tease him about it. He occasionally sipped at a drink that was mostly half-melted ice and dregs of pink -- probably had once been a vodka cranberry -- through the tiny cocktail straw that he missed hitting his mouth with a few times. Steven didn't look isolated, and he didn't look unhappy to be there, so Andrew just watched him, watched soft lines form and dissipate on his brow until suddenly Steven broke into a huge smile and started talking about ice cream.

There was apparently some ice cream truck not far from the bar that Steven was excited about, some special hip place, not just a Mr. Softee or whatever. He gesticulated with his empty drink enthusing about handmade waffle cones and some flavor with pie chunks in it or something, and the rest of their group nodded in some sincere interest -- you had to be a _real_ asshole to not respond positively to Steven's excitement, a fact Andrew knew from deep personal experience -- but clearly none of them wanted to leave the immediate vicinity of access to alcohol.

Andrew drank down the last third of his beer. "Yeah, let's go," he said, and Steven legit pumped his fist a little.

Steven kept talking as they left the bar and lead the way towards frozen treats, and Andrew listened, chiming in where he needed to and making Steven laugh whenever he could. Eventually they fell into a comfortable silence as Andrew enjoyed the underrated pleasure of actually walking somewhere in Los Angeles. It had that late spring warmth out, and the street smelled distinctly of street, and he liked the way he could follow Steven's shadow on the sidewalk, see where it shaped out how Steven's hands were stuck into his jacket pockets.

There was a little line at the ice cream truck, and a few picnic benches around in the lot where it was parked. Steven rocked a little back and forth on his feet as he considered out loud his choices of flavor, and Andrew absolutely did not let the opportunity to make a pun about _waffling_ go by. He just smiled in a way that made his face kind of sore, that good ache that he only got when he made Steven shake his head as he laughed.

He got a scoop of blueberry cobbler, the one with the promised pie crust chunks. Did cobbler even usually have crust? Whatever, it didn't matter. Steven got avocado with fudge swirls, which was one of the more unsettling scoops of ice cream Andrew had ever personally looked at, and Andrew paid for both of them. They sat side by side on top of one of the picnic tables, Steven to Andrew's left and Andrew to his right as usual, and were two grown men happily eating ice cream cones together on a Friday night, watching cars zip by the lot and listening to the murmur and laughter of the people around them.

The ice cream was good, of course. Like ice cream could possibly be bad, Andrew started to think, but then remembered that Halo Top existed, though that was only questionably legally ice cream. Steven didn't need a camera on him to spill out his usual half-goofy poetry to describe the experience of his cone. Andrew just watched him eat and had that smile again, which he half-hid behind his own scoop.

They ate quietly for a while, save for the interruptions of Steven's occasional sounds of pleasure, and Andrew couldn't take his eyes off him. His mouth and throat were cold from the ice cream but he felt an unrelenting, perfect warmth inside. Sometimes moments like this made him ache inside, so hard that he'd carry it home with him and feel it for hours, but tonight, mildly tipsy under the yellow glow of street lamps, it just felt good.

Steven looked at him out of the corner of his eye. "You know you stare at me a lot, right?"

Andrew blinked a few times. Straight-up busted. "Yeah," he said, because why try to deny something there was significant amounts of literal footage of. "I do."

Steven smiled a little but didn't quite turn to look at Andrew. "Is there, like, something permanently on my face?"

"No," Andrew said, and he couldn't explain why, but it suddenly felt stupid to say anything but the truth. "I just really like looking at you when you're happy."

Steven turned his head away a little, but not enough that Andrew couldn't still see how his lips were turned upward. He then looked back, and met Andrew's eyes. "Well, I'm always happy when I'm around you."

Andrew took in a slow breath as he felt that sentence run down his spine, felt the soft look in Steven's eyes right in his gut. He let the air out and held his cone out to Steven. "Here, try mine."

Steven leaned in without hesitation to take a good mouthful. Andrew hoped he got some of the pie crust chunks, because seriously, they were really good. He closed his eyes and made a soft 'mmm' noise and then gave Andrew one of those sunshine smiles that he felt entirely addicted to. "I think I like yours better."

Andrew laughed. "Yours does look kind of weird."

"It's good though!" Steven said, and proffered his green-black ice cream to Andrew. He could feel Steven's eyes as he took a bite. It _was_ weird, but still was good, the differently earthy tastes of avocado and chocolate blending together in a way he'd never tasted before.

"Mm, good" he said, meaningfully, and then gave Steven a smirk. "Mine is still better."

Steven laughed. "Oh, it always is." His eyebrows went up as his gaze went down to Andrew's mouth, and that second's worth of glance was enough to make his heart flip a little. "You're like a huge baby, you've got chocolate on your face..." he said, and reached over to wipe at the corner of Andrew's mouth with his thumb, and then popped his thumb into his mouth to clean it off without any further thought.

Andrew let out a soft breath through his lips and had to look away. Ice cream had a deadline, at least, and he could focus on eating that. The waffle cone, as promised, hit the perfect spot between crispy and that good kind of soft sogginess, and Andrew was pretty sure neither of them had scooted in any direction on the picnic table, but he was suddenly so sharply aware of how close Steven was, how their knees were just barely touching, how his free hand was just an inch away from Steven's.

Why bother being anything but honest? Just for a change. He got a big mouthful of blueberries and moved his hand until it was resting on top of Steven's. He heard Steven make a little sound, and then he was moving his hand -- but not to pull it away. He turned it, and threaded his fingers through Andrew's. Andrew squeezed his hand and ate the rest of his ice cream quickly, enough to get a mild case of brain freeze that he barely even noticed through how perfectly, radiantly warm he felt inside.

"Dude, extremely weird that you're not looking at me right now," Steven said eventually, and Andrew looked at him. His smile was so fucking perfect. "Because I'm really happy."

Andrew could think of absolutely nothing to say in response, so he reached over and took the last little bottom bit of ice cream cone out of Steven's hand and popped it into his mouth.

"No! That's the best part!" Steven said in distress as Andrew chewed around a grin. Steven wasn't letting go of his hand. He narrowed his eyes at Andrew for a few moments and then, to Andrew's profound surprise, quickly leaned in to kiss him.

His lips were cold, of course. Andrew shook off the shock almost immediately so he could kiss back before Steven pulled away, and then it was a _kiss_ , a real, honest kiss, soft and sweet. He'd never thought it would actually happen, but somehow it made perfect sense that it was happening just like this. Steven squeezed his hand tight, and Andrew ran his thumb over his knuckles.

Steven drew away first, letting out a sigh against Andrew's mouth that made him shiver. He let out a shaky little laugh. "Okay, now's a great time for you to stare at me, because I'm, like, _beyond_ happy right now."

Andrew leaned back and did just that, looking into Steven's eyes in a way that felt entirely terrifying, inescapable, and wonderful. "Yeah," he said, low and soft. "This is the good stuff."

Steven let him look for a while, and then leaned in for another kiss, this one more of a quick peck on the lips. He let out a contented breath and then leaned his head against Andrew's shoulder, in that way he'd done only a few times before, never for more than a few seconds before drawing away. Now he just stayed, the line of his body warm pressed against Andrew's, his breath soft near him.

They stayed like that for a while. Andrew could have stayed in this moment for the rest of his life, would be remembering this one on his deathbed. Then something occurred to him and he laughed. "So, how's that lactose intolerance working out for you?"

Steven laughed, too. "Worth it," he said, and then immediately groaned. "Ugh, there has got to be another way of putting that."

Andrew smiled and turned his head to press a kiss into Steven's hair. "We'll think of something."


End file.
